Blogs from South America - page 5477

We left San Rafael on Friday, November 4th and proceeded down Highway 40 toward Marlargue. This was our first day of our Patagonia Road Trip and we were all in great spirits and ready for the long road ahead. After heading southwest for an hour and a half, we took a two hour diversion to check out Las Leñas, Argentina's world class ski resort. The slopes had been closed for about a month but we were impressed by the size and grandeur of the place. After puchasing "la comida" for the evening's asado in Malargue, we headed of toward Bardas Blancas, where we planned to camp. The road was primarily dirt with broken remnents of pavement that must have been paved in the 1950s. We reached Bardas Blancas with about 2 hours of daylight remaining. ... read more

We arrived in Rio the night before Lorna's birthday and stayed in a truly nasty hostel in Downtown Rio. When we awoke we got out of there very quickly and headed to the posh hotel in Copacabana we had booked as a birthday treat. After exploring the area and enjoying the luxury of the hotel we went for dinner and champagne at a lovely restaurant on Ipanema beach. Lorna had sparklers in her pudding and the waiters sang 'Happy Birthday'. Most of our following time in Rio was spent lazing on the beach and working on our suntans. We were in need of some relaxation time after the hectic schedule in Peru and then travelling through Brazil. For the first few days when the weather wasn't so good the beach was quiet, then when it got ... read more

We had an interesting journey getting to Rio de Janeiro... Arriving about 2 hours early at the airport (as we believed you were supposed to do), we headed for the check-in desk and were a little horrified to be told that our flight had been overbooked and we couldn´t fly until the next day!!! What the!?! So a bit deflated we headed towards another desk where they´d arrange a hotel for the night and compensation for the inconvenience. Maria did a great job of arguing our case (as she would!) and we were more than surprised when they told us we could not only board the flight that night as planned, but that due to lack of seats in economy we'd have to fly Business Class!!! Well, no complaints there!!! Woo-hoo!! So, after a nice glass ... read more

Well we eventually made it to Rurrenabaque after 10 hours in La Paz airport. I had a horrible flight as it was a little 12 seater plane and shortly after leaving La paz and the beautiful snow capped montains behind we were submerged in thick dark grey cloud and rather sever turbulance at one point the plane dropped what seemed like a few hundred feet and let out a large beep (never known a beep mean anything good, I´ve not said a prayer in a long time but I said one then). Andrews hand was white from me squeezig it so tightly! As we were coming into land we came out of the cloud had a quick glimpse of thick forrest and a wide chocolate brown river and then we were on the rather bumpy grass ... read more

I would like to preface my journal by explaining that I know absolutely nothing about computers or this thing called a ¨blog¨. Therefore, if pictures do not match captions or my words turn up on your screen as cryptic computer symbols, forgive me for wasting your time. I flew into Quito on Monday, November 7th. I had planned a 9 ½ week trip starting in northern Ecuador and then meandering south through Peru and Bolivia before finally ending up from Buenos Aires, Argentina by mid-January. Other than that, I had no specific plans. Gracias a Dios, I had friends to welcome me in Quito. George Leamon, current Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic and water systems expert, his girlfriend Abby, and some guy named Rob met me at my hostel. While seeing them soothed over ... read more